Adults should support teens in the arts. Ft. @AFHBoston
Artists For Humanity empowers and employs NYC's teens in the creative industries, working on commissioned projects for businesses and organizations. By June 30, AFH has an ambitious goal of raising $90,000, to sponsor wages for 40 teens, this Summer. You can be part of this impact. Every donation helps grow a studio where talent, voice, and vision are nurtured.
Summary
Miss Q taught a high school student to play cello in four years, getting them to professional all-city orchestra level. That's the kind of mentorship that matters. Kareem talks with a stranger who works at Artists For Humanity, a program that employs NYC teens to create commissioned artwork for businesses while getting paid real wages. Coming from an immigrant household where the pressure is "be a doctor, be a lawyer," not everyone has the luxury to explore the arts. AFH changes that. The rider argues adults need to support young artists with safe spaces and actual opportunities, not just empty encouragement.
Full Transcript
So, what's your take? Adults should support teens in the arts.
100% agree. I feel like young artists feel completely unsupported. Coming from an immigrant household, a lot of the focus is on, you know, get going to school, getting good grades, engineer, be a doctor, be a lawyer. Go to your mom, you say, "I want to be an artist." She says, "Bro, no." I feel like that's why it's important for teens to have safe spaces to be able to create and have voices and express themselves. For me personally, being in high school, I had my mentor and music teacher, Miss Q. I learned to play the cello in four years.
Miss Q taught you how to play cello in four years. Yes. Yes.
You were like, I like the cello. You picked it up. You started playing it. And then Miss Q was like, you should encouraged you to do it more. And she got me to the next level. I was able to play in all city orchestra.
You played in the all city? Yes. Professional level music.
And that's the Miss Q influence. Yes. She's a baddie. I feel like young people, especially in New York City, oftentimes we're not thinking about them. We're not giving them opportunities.
Exactly. I mean, your parents can't afford stuff. Your grandparents can't afford stuff. The people around you might be not. We don't have the liberty and the time to explore the arts. You know, like while I was a senior in high school, I got this offer to work at Artist for Humanity. I'm like, what's this?
You got an offer to work at something called Artist for Human Life.
And what did they do? They employ teens to um create artwork. And we also do commissions for many like different companies and it's a really good experience and it opened a lot of doors for me.
Wait, but keyword employed. Employed.
You got paid. I got paid.
And what kind of art are we talking? Like painting? Painting. Digital art. We even do like some like recording, photography.
So they're really training the next generation of artists. Yes.
Are you still playing cello? Yes, I am.
Shout out Miss Q.